“Got nothing better to do,” I said
, looking over the top of my book at him.
“Oh
, that’s right. Alex’s not here yet. Whatever will you do?”
I put my book down,
choosing to ignore his remark.
“I guess I co
uld talk to you,” I said, matching his sarcasm.
“That won’t be necessary. Alex just walked in,” he whispered and pointed to the door. “Are you ready? Oh wait, you’ve got a piece of lettuce in your teeth.”
“What?” I said as I instantly began digging through my backpack for my compact.
“Calm down. I’m kidding. You look fine,” he laughed and then turned back to face the front.
“Jerk,” I mumbled and Jesse turned and grinned at me before he began writing something in his notebook.
My heart, which had started pounding when I thought I’d been walking around with green guck stuck in my teeth, began to settle and I looked up just in time to see Alex walk past me. He smiled and knocked lightly on the top of my desk as he walked to his seat. He was followed a minute later by
the boy who separated our desks. I still hadn’t learned his name yet, but I wondered if he wasn’t sitting there if Alex would’ve talked to me. I dismissed the thought though and began doodling in my notebook. We’d have plenty of time to talk on Saturday night.
My wish was granted. No group work, just a class discussion and a video clip from the movie adaptation of
The Scarlet Letter
. I’d hoped it would be the version with Demi Moore, but instead Mrs. Davenport showed the Masterpiece Theater production. I wasn’t going to complain though. Any chance to veg out in class was always welcome.
When the bell rang, the class began shoving their books and pencils into their backpacks,
myself included.
“See you tonight
, Boston,” Jesse said to me as I brushed by his desk.
“Yeah.
See you tonight,” I said to him and left the classroom and headed to my locker.
I was maneuvering through the crowd when I heard Alex’
s voice calling from behind me.
“Riley,” he said again a
s he stepped in stride with me.
“Oh, hey
, Alex,” I said trying to sound surprised. It was key to keep my eagerness to myself to avoid looking desperate.
“I
was hoping you’d wait for me.”
“S
orry. I’m just anxious to get outta here.”
“It’s only your se
cond day. It’s been that bad?”
“No. It’s been fine. I just have some things
to do before I go out tonight.”
“
That’s right. Your plans. So are you going to tell me where you’re going?”
“You’re awfully nosey,” I said
, stopping once we’d reached my locker.
“Don’t tell me
then. I don’t care,” he said playfully, but as I looked into those dark eyes of his, I didn’t want the conversation to end.
“I’m just going to a friend’s house to hang out,” I said
, shrugging my shoulders and shutting my locker.
“I wasn’t aware you’d made fr
iends already,” he said with his half-grin.
“Oh, I have friends alright.”
“You mean that crew you sit with at lunch? Holly and Laura and Mandy?”
“Yeah.
Do you approve?”
“They’re not bad. That Mandy one’s a little yippy though, like a Chihuahua…has been since kindergarten,” he said and I couldn’t help but laugh because it was so true. “What are you guys d
oing?”
“We’re going over to Jesse’s house. I guess we’re going to rid
e four-wheelers, stuff you guys do for fun around here. I don’t know.”
“Jesse Baylor?” he asked
, looking over at me and I nodded.
“You know him?”
“Of course I do. You forget this is Carver. We all know each other. We may not hang out, but there’s very little that’s anonymous here.”
We kept walking, in silence this time
, until I saw Holly waiting by the doors. I noticed the way she looked first at me and then at Alex. The same distain she’d shown earlier was still on her face. I didn’t fault her though. She had a history here. She knew these people, I didn’t. But, I wasn’t going to take her word for anything until I’d had a chance to judge for myself.
“I’ll see you on Saturday then,” Alex said
, gently touching my arm as we neared the door. “Hey, Holly,” he said, smiling at her and then walked out the doors toward the parking lot.
“That was weird,” she said
, watching him for a second before turning back to me.
“What?”
“I don’t think Alex Bettencourt has said a word to me since sixth grade. I figured he’d forgotten my name.”
“Maybe he’s not as bad as you think,” I suggested a
nd she looked at me doubtfully.
“Baby steps, Riley.
Baby steps.”
Chapter Five
When I got home, my mom was reading in the recliner and my grandma was on the couch watching her stories.
Her stories.
That cracked me up. Back in Boston, we just called them soap operas. They both looked up when I walked in. My grandma smiled and my mom made an attempt to smile. I hadn’t seen her when I left for school in the morning and we hadn’t said much to each other since the blowout in my room the day before. Things were still tense between us. I was still mad.
“Riley!” my grandma said when I walked inside. Just like my uncle, my name crawled out
of her mouth. I was beginning to think I should just change my name to Raleigh if that’s the way everyone was going to pronounce it. I shook my head though. I was not the capital of North Carolina.
“Hi,
Grandma,” I said, walking over and giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“How was your day,
hun?”
I
looked over to my mother who was peering at me over the top of her book. She reminded me of Karen from my English class and I wanted to speak to her about as much as I’d wanted to speak to Karen.
“It was good, Grandma. How was yours?”
“Fine, just fine,” she said cheerfully. “Lizzie took me to the doctor and then the store.” I was still trying to get used to people calling my mom Lizzie. I’d only ever heard her referred to as Liz.
“The doctor?”
I asked curiously. “Is everything okay, Grandma?”
“Oh
, yes. I’m fine,” she reassured me, taking my hand and patting it gently. “I’m making pork chops for supper.”
I cringed and I felt bad havin
g to tell her I had to skip dinner.
“I’m sorry, Grandma, but I’m going out tonight,” I said apologetically, but then she smiled.
“You’ve already got a boyfriend then? I’m not surprised. You’re simply gorgeous. I’m sure all the boys are admiring you,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. I wished I’d known my grandmother more. I wished we hadn’t lived so far away. She was such a funny, happy woman. Always smiling, always positive. She seemed the complete opposite of my mom and I figured my grandpa must’ve been more reserved and had passed it on to her.
I started laughing and sat down beside her on the couch.
“No, Grandma. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“It won’t be long though,” she interrupted.
“I’m just going over to someone’s house. We’re having hamburgers and riding four-wheelers. I wouldn’t be booking any reception halls just yet.”
“
Who’s house are you going to?” my mom said, speaking her first words to me since I walked in. I turned my head abruptly to meet her blue eyes with my nearly black ones. We looked nothing alike. My mom was pretty. She always had been, but in the last couple of years, she seemed to have aged. I’m sure it was the stress of the divorce from my dad that had added the gray strands into her ash blonde hair that she kept covered by visits to Sonja, her beautician. The hairs were creeping back though. She’d need to find a new hair dresser soon. She was shorter than me too, a trait she got from my grandma. Sometimes I wondered if I was switched at birth. She and I couldn’t be more different. I had to dismiss the notion though because I possessed many of the attributes of my father. There was no doubt I was the daughter of Stephen and Liz Regas…well, not Stephen and Liz Regas anymore. I was the daughter of Stephen Regas and Liz Smollet Regas. I wondered if she would ever drop my dad’s last name. Probably, I guessed. Why wouldn’t she? They weren’t together anymore. They were two separate people with two separate lives and I was the only reminder that they had ever shared one.
“You wouldn’t know him,” I said
, finally answering her question.
“Maybe not,” she said and I could tell she was biting her tongue at my shortness. “But, I still want to know where you’re going to be.”
“His name’s Jesse.”
“Does Jesse have a last name?”
“Baylor. I’m going to Jesse Baylor’s house with Holly Taft, Laura Logan, Mandy Dalton and Brandon Seaver. Is there any other information you require?” I said sarcastically.
We locked eyes and in that moment I wished it wasn’t like this between us…the tension, the resentment. I wished I could let it go. I wished I could understand why she had come here, why she needed to come here. Why couldn’t she stay in Boston where her life had been for the past twenty years? She had a job there. She had friends there
, like me; she had a life there, like me. Why had she given it all up?
How
could she give it all up?
“No. No more questions,” she said shortly
, lowering her eyes back to her book. “Be home by midnight.”
“No problem,” I said, standing up and slinging my backpack onto my shoulder. “I’m going to go do my homework.”
Chapter Six
I got all my homework done by the time I left to pick up Holly. I had changed into a pair of jeans and a gray Amherst hoodie, figuring that would be more appropriate for gallivanting on four-wheelers than the fragile tank-top I’d worn to school.
I hardly knew Jesse, or anyone else who was going to be there for that matter, but I would’ve felt strange going to a birthday party without a gift. Before I’d left Massachusetts, I’d taken a drive to Cape Cod and loaded up on salt water taffy from my favorite road side stand. I’d eaten quite a bit of it during the drive to Kansas, but I still had a few boxes left, so I decided I’d wrap one up and give it to Jesse.
I plugged Holly’s address into the GPS and I followed it to a small white house in a neighborhood that was not extraordinary to Carver. In fact, it was ordinary and typical. The houses had small front yards with lawn ornaments, some tacky, some not, mostly homemade. They all had porches though.
When I pulled up to her house, I didn’t have a chance to get out before Holly came bounding out, her light brown hair bobbing up and down. She opened the door and hopped inside, buckling her seatbelt. She guided me to the outskirts of town, leaving the neighborhoods behind us.
“How far out is this place?” I asked as we’d passed our tenth windmill.
“I told you Jesse lives out in the sticks. We’re almost there though. Turn right up here, at the next stop sign,” she said, pointing ahead.
I did as she said and turned onto the dirt road. I hadn’t seen a house for
miles; at least that’s what it felt like. Jesse really did live out in the sticks.
“Is that it?” I asked when I saw a blue house come into view.
“Yeah. Just pull in and park by the shed.”
I pulled in
and chuckled to myself at the “shed” as Holly had called it. It was hardly a shed, at least not any shed I’d ever seen. It was more like an airplane hangar.
“What is that?” I laughed.
“It’s where they keep the four-wheelers and stuff. There’s a game room too with a pool table and an amazing sound system. It may take forever to get out here, but it’s the best place to hang out. Jesse’s dad leaves us alone too so we can basically do whatever we want.”
“Where’s his mom?” I asked as I turned the car off and unbuckled my seatbelt.
“Not sure. I guess she left a long time ago or something. Jesse doesn’t really talk about it. His dad’s cool though.”
So Jesse came from a broken home too. At least we’d have something to talk about.
Holly and I stepped out of the car and were greeted by two big mutts. Their tails were wagging and I braced myself as the tan one jumped on me and the black one stood at Holly’s side.
“Rocky! Jasper! Get over here!” Jesse shouted to the dogs as he and Brandon walked out of the house, the screen door slapping loudly behind them. The dogs ran over to the boys and Jesse began scratching Rocky’s back.
“Sorry about that,” he said as they walked over to us. “They just get a little excited with new people.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said
, reaching down and petting Jasper. I loved animals. I’d always wanted a dog, but my dad would never allow it. He said it wouldn’t be fair to have a dog in the city. But, I knew it was just an excuse. He just thought they were messy and didn’t want to deal with it.
“Happy birthday,” I said
, handing him the box of taffy I’d brought.
He looked down at it and then smiled at me.
“You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I wanted to.”
“Mind if I open it now?” he asked and I nodded as he began tearing off the blue wrapping paper I’d found in my grandma’s desk drawer. He looked curiously down at the candy and then up at me. “Salt water taffy? I’ve never had this before. Thanks, Boston.”
“You’re welcome. It’s not much, but it’s from my favorite place on Cape Cod. I hope you like it,” I said
, wondering if he thought I was a complete dork for bringing him a box of candy.
He opened it and looked through the transparent wrappers.
“Grape’s my favorite,” I said as I reached in and took a lavender piece and handed it to him.
“Then I’ll try it first,” he said
, tucking the box under his arm and unwrapping the taffy. He popped it in his mouth and I could tell he was surprised at how hard it was by the way his jaw struggled.
“Yeah, it can be a little tough,” I said. “But keep at it.”
He did and a moment later he swallowed.
“
Whaddya think?”
“Very good,” he said digging through the box again. “Thanks a lot.”
“You’re welcome,” I told him and I started to relax a little.
“I’m gonna go run this inside. I’ll be right back,” he said and disappeared into the house for a minute.
“Where are Laura and Mandy?” Holly asked, looking around.
“Obviously not here yet,” Brandon said sarcastically.
“So, do you say things just to antagonize people?” I asked, glaring at Brandon.
“Yeah, pretty much,” he smirked. I knew he was harmless and even though he was annoying, I liked Brandon for some reason. He was funny and immature and I knew deep down he liked the girls too. He just liked to bait them. It was all innocent fun.
“You guys hungry? I already started the grill,” Jesse asked us when he returned from the house.
“Yeah, I’m hungry,” I told him. The sun was starting to set and I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch. My stomach started to growl just at the mention of the grill.
Holly nodded too and we followed Jesse and Brandon over to the gigantic shed. A black charcoal grill was sitting outside. There was a large fire pit a few yards from the grill and Brandon began moving some wood into the pit. He arranged it into a pile and then squirted lighter fluid onto it. He struck a match and threw it, causing the mound to erupt into an enormous fireball. My heart began to pound as I felt the heat wash over my body and I jumped back, not realizing Jesse was standing behind me. I bumped into him and we started to stumble backwards until he steadied us both.
“What the hell, Brandon?” Jesse shouted. “Did you bring that crap again?”
“Of course,” he
grinned proudly, holding up the bottle of lighter fluid.
“I told you to leave that
crap at home. You’re gonna kill someone!”
“I’ve never seen a fire like that,” I said
, trying to catch my breath.
“That’s because you’ve never been around a fire created by Brandon,” Jesse said
, glancing over to his friend who had a moronic grin plastered on his face. “He’s a bit of a pyromaniac. That bottle isn’t just lighter fluid. It’s a mixture of chlorine and pool cleaner.”
“That doesn’t exactly sound safe,” I said nervously.
“It’s not. The first time he brought it over, he singed off his eyebrows and all the hair on his arms.”
“You guys have
way
too much time on your hands out here,” I laughed.
“That may be true, but we’re not all as stupid as Brandon. You
wanna give me a hand with the burgers?” he asked. I nodded and followed him back to the blue house.
He opened the screen door and we walked into a small kitchen. It had simple oak cabinets and older appliances, like at my uncle’s house. I could see into the living room. It had shaggy beige carpet and wood paneling on the walls and I was taken aback by the large buck’s head hanging on it.
“Do you hunt?” I asked.
“Yeah.
A little,” he said as he dug around in the refrigerator.
“And did you…did you kill that deer?” I asked skeptically.
He looked up from the fridge and smiled as he handed me a plate of hamburgers.
“No. That would be the prize of my dad.”
He stood up, also holding a plate, and we walked back outside. Brandon was still playing with the fire and Holly was glaring at him with annoyance. I followed Jesse back to the grill and then we all looked up as we heard the crackling of tires on the dirt road. Laura pulled her car, an old white Ford Taurus, next to mine.
Laura and Mandy came up to us, quickly followed by Holly, leaving Brandon to his fire.
“Sorry we’re late,” Laura said.
“Happy birthday!”
Mandy exclaimed excitedly, holding out a cake she’d obviously spent the afternoon working on.
“I told you I didn’t need a cake, Mandy,” Jesse said
, almost embarrassed by the attention given to him.
“I know. But it’s your birthday, so I ignored you! I’m
gonna go run this inside,” she said and she practically skipped into the house.
Laura walked into the shed and returned a minute later with a Coke. She joined us by the grill as the burgers cooked and I
mentally checked out for a moment as I began to really look around. The sun was nearly set, and it cast a yellow haze on the landscape. There wasn’t another house in sight and because the land was so flat, I could see forever. It was so much different in Boston. There, you could hardly see anything past the clustered buildings in the city. Even outside the city, the hills and trees prevented you from seeing very far at all. I had to admit, as much as I hated to do so, it felt good to be in the open space. It was as if I could breathe more clearly. The air smelled fresh and clean, like it had never been used. The air was different in Boston. There, it was heavy and frequently smelled like sulfur and dirt.
“Is all this property yours?” I asked as I looked around at the flat land, which was peppered with bushes and trees.
“Yeah, well…my dad’s. There’s about twenty acres. I’ll take you around on the mule after we eat.”
“You have a mule? I’ve never even ridden a horse before,” I said
, uneasy at the thought of riding a mule and then everyone burst out laughing.
“What? What’s so funny?” I asked as they all continued to roll with laughter.
“You can’t be serious, Riley,” Brandon said, almost unable to breathe. “He’s not talking about a mule, like a donkey.”
I looked around at them, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid.
“What are you talking about then?”
“A mule is like a little truck,” Jesse said, finally containing his laugh
ter and pointing to a funny looking red vehicle parked next to the shed. “We use it to get around the property.”
“C’mon.
Gimme a break!” I said, laughing too, even though I felt like a royal idiot on the inside. “I grew up in civilization. We didn’t need special vehicles to get around because we live in the modern world that has all means of transportation. We even have paved roads!”
“There she goes again, comparing high and mighty Boston to lowly Carver. I’m shocked she’ll even associate with us hillbillies,” Brandon laughed
, trumping up his slight drawl into a full blown southern accent.
“I don’t blame her,” Holly agreed with a chuckle. “This place is a pit. We don’t know any better, but poor Riley, she’s been to the Promised Land and now she’s stuck here.”
“Don’t remind me,” I said and we all laughed until Jesse spoke.
“Burgers are ready.”
Laura and Mandy ran inside the house, returning a few moments later with mustard, ketchup, pickles and hamburger buns. Jesse handed me a burger and soon we were all sitting around the fire, which luckily had dulled to just an orange glow compared to the inferno it had been earlier. It was almost dark now, but the fire provided enough light that I could see everyone clearly. They were laughing and joking, picking on Brandon as I was beginning to notice was the usual pattern. They almost reminded me of my friends back home…almost.
****
“So what exactly is the purpose of this…mule?” I asked Jesse as I climbed into the open air cab of the funny red truck after we’d eaten.
“We’ve got a whole lot of trails around this place that you can’t exactly get to with a regular truck. Plus, it’s too big to walk, hence the reason for the mule,” he said, running his hand over the dashboard. “It’s kinda old, but it gets the job done. You ready?”
“I guess so,” I said and Jesse turned the ignition. The mule roared to life and Jesse put it in gear as we lurched forward and took off into the darkness. He gunned it and we sped down the dirt road in front of the house until he abruptly turned the wheel and we jerked to the right. I knew we couldn’t have been going more than twenty-five miles an hour, but it felt as if we were racing down the Autobahn as we bumped along and my hair whipped uncontrollably around my face. The headlights on the mule seemed more like flashlights and I was amazed that Jesse wasn’t crashing into any of the trees
branches that hung over our path.
“You seem scared. Are yo
u?” he shouted over the engine.
“No,” I said, even though I was clutching th
e roll bar with all my might.
He gunned it again and we flew down a hill so fast I could’ve sworn we caught air. I heard myself let out an involuntary yelp and gripped the bar even harder.